News from the McGregor Library

Howe’s Your Book?

By Christine Howe

Library Helper News
Thank you to the 26 Library Helpers who are assisting during morning recesses.  They are Grade 5’s from Madame Jalland’s
and Mrs. Wolk’s classes.
These students have received their schedules and will be helping out until the end of December 2013.
R.H. McGregor students borrow more than 2000 books per week!
The Library Helpers are helping to run our library by checking books in and out, shelving books and learning organizational skills.
Thank you for your help!

Fabulous Reading Events!
A few noteworthy events:
The Forest of Reading is Canada’s largest recreational reading program where young readers select the winners!
The nominated titles were announced on October 15^th.
Check outhttps://www.accessola.org/OLAWEB/Forest_of_Reading/Current_Program_Year.aspxfor this year’s nominees.
TD Canadian Children’s Literature Awards celebrates excellence in children’s literature by rewarding the best literary work
by Canadian authors for children aged one through twelve. Sponsored by TD — this is one of the largest prizes in children’s
book awards.  Learn more at:  www.tdreads.com
Research and Inquiry as part of our Library program
Research and Inquiry are integral to Ontario curriculum in all subject areas.
While subject expectations are expressed in a variety of ways, they all identify aspects of the inquiry model, and require students to:
-formulate questions to guide research
-access, select, gather, and critically evaluate information
-synthesize information to draw comparisons and conclusions
-create and communicate new knowledge
(Ontario Library Association, Together for Learning:  School Libraries and the Emergence of the Learning Commons, 2010, p. 24)

Inquiry based learning opportunities are being explored as a part of library instruction at R.H. McGregor.
Classroom teachers and I are planning collaboratively to support and provide instruction in student inquiry and research skill development.

Happy reading and learning to all!

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• Thank for supporting the Spooktacular Fall Fair! (555mortimer.wordpress.com)
• Spooktacular 2013 is only 1 week away! (555mortimer.wordpress.com)

Mr. R. Reads – Some great books for your kids over the summer!

Earlier this year, the kids participated in several reading programs in the library.  Here are reviews of several of the books to give you a taste of the rich Canadian literature that the children are being exposed to.

Ella May and the Wishing Stone
Cary Fagan, Geneviève Côte

Blue Spruce Reading Program

This is a beautiful book about a girl who brings back a stone from the beach that has a line going all-all-all the way around it. She decides because it looks so special that it must be and believes that it grants wishes. Soon she is bragging about the stone and lording it over her friends.  She soon learns that keeping the stone to herself is costing her what she most holds dear, her friends.  She finally wishes that she had never found the stone and uses her wit and imagination to win her friends back – thus granting her own last wish.  This book touches on friendship, imagination and selfishness in a fun and refreshing way.

Aujourd’hui, peut-être…
Dominique Demers, Gabrielle Grimard
Prix Peuplier

There was once a little girl who had decided not to grow. She lived alone in a house at the edge of a huge forest, with her bird. Thus begins the wonderful story of a girl who waits for love. Grace with the purity of her dream, and confidence in it, brave thieves, the big bad wolf, and even a wicked witch.

The Mighty Miss Malone
Christopher Paul Curtis
Silver Birch Reading Program
“We are a family on a journey to a place called wonderful” is Deza Malone’s family motto. Deza is the smartest girl in her class in Gary, Indiana, but each member of her family stands out in their own way.  But The Great Depression hit Gary hard, and there are no jobs for black men. When her beloved father leaves to find work, Deza, Mother, and her older brother Jimmie go in search of him, and end up in Hooverville outside Flint, Michigan. Jimmie’s beautiful voice inspires him to leave the camp to be a performer, while Deza and Mother find a new home, and cling to the hope that they will find Father. The twists and turns of their story reveal the devastation caused by the Depression and prove that Deza is truly the Mighty Miss Malone.